Here’s a little news item I my dear wife pointed out to me this afternoon:
The biggest law firm in the country allegedly fell victim to a multi-million-peso scam.
Sources in other law firms told abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak that Sycip Salazar Hernandez Gatmaitan, one of the leading local law firms, was duped by a foreign client into advancing P50 million for a deal that would supposedly bring around P100 million to the firm’s earnings.
The law firm was reportedly promised five percent of its client’s $50 million-claim. However, in order to get their cut, the firm was first asked to advance P50 million…. read the full Philippine scam report article here
Once again, it would seem that an expereinced, educated attorney in a high-level management position fell victim to exactly what I wrote about recently regarding the key to virtually all scams, Philippine or elsewhere … getting money that really wasn’t his .. or his firm’s.
photo credit: woodleywonderworks
Just advance us x amount of money and you too will benefit from money which was never yours in the first place.
The article goes on to outline a number of famous scams from recent Philippine history. Note the common theme … advance us some money and you’ll get more than you know is yours … a special deal for you to get ahead … insider information only. In plice terminology this is know as the advance-fee fraud scheme
Once agin I’ll maintain what I’ve often said, and what many notorous ‘confince men’ have said in the past … you can’t scam an honest man. If it is too good to be true … it is likely that it is.
Popularity: 20% [?]
I guess the point to be had from this is.
DO NOT get into any legal problems in RP that you would need a “Sharp” Lawyer to get you out of.
Fully concur. However don’t think it’s a Filipino thing. According to the Secret Service records in the US, lawyers and bankers are both very prevalent in the list of US victims. Also a friend in Australia, which is after all a much smaller country population-wise than the US or the Philippines, had something like 100,000 reported cases in 2006 … and you can well imagine many people realize how their greed has tricked them and live on. never reporting the loss. The sad thing about those scams is, they work and they continue to work, no matter where tey are perpetrated. It’s the ‘something for nothing’ mentality.
I have to do some digging for the refernce but I read a scholarly article last year that said there was a direct correlation in the US between education level and percentage of victims. Scams like this are hard to pull on someone like a truck driver or a plumber or … well how about a letter carrier? Folks at that level know you only get what you legally earn from the job (plus they seldom have access to other people’s money to put at risk) … but folks with advanced education frequently get trapped by the “I’m smart enough to get away with this” syndrome.
i always knew my poor scholarship and lack of formal education would be an advantage someday
Sounds like a Nigerian Scam!
Yep, exactly like what I wrote about a few days ago on not getting scammed. It’s even commonly called a’419′ scam, based on a whole section of public law the government of Nigeria enacted to try to stop the scams and salvage their reputation. Doesn’t seem to have had much success, though.
My Manila Bay Bridge project is still on track. A P10M investment will insure the future receipt of your share of bridge tolls for the thirty year period immediately following the bridge’s opening (projected opening: 2012). That would be a projected income stream until 2042! Inquiries welcome, either direct or through your lawyer.
Oy! Where’s my commission?
P.I. Scams I have enjoyed.
The wedding scam: A major cost off any wedding here in the P.I. is the required Videos and photos. The first thing I noticed was that the wedding took 30 minutes or so, yet the photos session afterward took up to an hour. So with my inquiring mind I set out to answer this Question. I think now I have the answer. At the beginning of the wedding there are two or three guys in your face with a camera, they then disappear to develop said photos. Mister Kodak minuteman, who is the ringmaster, will not allow anyone to leave while he sets up endless groupings for photos of the bridal party. You know, friends of the groom, people who saw the groom one time at the market, Family of the bride, people who know members of the family of the bride, and so on and so on. These endless photos will not end until the 2 or 3 guys who left with their film, are back to sell every person who attended the wedding a picture. Let’s hope they gave the Bride and Groom a piece of that action, or at least a discount. When my last Daughter gets married, I’m going to sell the photo rights to the highest bidder, because, I’m on to them now! And to Mike who escaped without buying his picture, you are my hero! I gave them your address.
The Parking Scam: In 1963 I received my Drivers License in Boston, after demonstrating that I could parallel park a 1960 Oldsmobile 98, which I believe is 2 ½ times larger than my present car. And yet for some reason, maybe my advancing age, I now require assistance in parking my car at the public market. This is not a free service, and it’s not a service one may decline. I know I tried once, which produced a loud wailing and knashing of teeth. Best advice, give them the Pesos!
The Car Wash: After you’ve parked at the market, now come the “Car Wash Crew” ready to wash your already washed and waxed car. Equipped with a bucket of filthy water and rags, “Sir, I wash your car?” I reply, “No thank you it’s clean.” As they dip into the bucket and move towards the car you must quickly stand in the way and try to translate the word NO into something they can understand. Yet if for some reason you are fond of your car not being clean, let them wash it. By the way “NO” in Tagalog is pronounced “NO”. We do choose to live here!
very good explanations/pointers, paul. I do have to say, though, that parking hekpers, especially when backing out into traffic, can often be ahelp. I go to a certain Mercury Drug near me, bypassing another store that’s even alittle closer, becuase the one I go too has ‘parking boys’ who shoe the tricycles out of the parking slots when I pull in, and fearly jup out in front of incoming trucks to hold them up when I back out. I can certainly get buy on my own, but it’s nice to have someone back there, even if he served no purpose than to cushion the blow if an oncoming vehcle refuses to stop.
I guess I’m a litle philosophical on this becuase there are so many standbys waiting for money to drop out ofthe sky that a busy lad with a willing smile who greets me whenever I come in and does his best to force a spot for me when I back out is worth 5 or 10 pesos as I drive away … it may be a scam but at least he’s doing something rather than waiting around for his ship to come in.
Hi Dave – “I’m smart enough to get away with this….”
How about we call it a Bernie Madoff scam?
Hi Bob, indeed. I think you missed my ariginal article on this scamming problem:
http://philfaqs.com/investing-there/never-get-scammed-in-the-philippines/
I explain my thoughts on why anyone who got scammed by Madoff had every reason to _know_ they were being scammed. Some people would argue, “It doesn’t matter if the market is down more thna 34%, I have the _right_ to earn 50% better thna all the other people in the world”.
true, I guess they have the _right_, but like those who followed “Bernie”, my question is, “How’s that working out for you?”
BTW, at least two more Philippine Rural Banks went T.u> yesterday. I hope those folks who were having such a good time promoting the too good to be true bonds are happy. Rough estimate of when PDIC will begin to reimburse the losses tat were covered? After the next election.
Hi Dave – Nope, I did catch your last article in the series….
OK I see. It was just my usual unclear writing I guess.
CNN and Fox have gone out of their way to tell me about the people who Bernie Madoff
riped off, rich people cheatin’ rich people, it’s just so sad! Then the companys who have moved to China, to produce high end goods on the cheap, are upset that the factory down the street is copying their goods and they are losing soooo… much money, because of throse ripoff guys. Do those company’s feel at all for all the workers from Europe, and The United States who lost their jobs durning the move to China. No they don’t, it’s just the way it is. Yet I should care about the money they lose? Ain’t gonna’ happen!
I am deeply, deeply disappointed by the way Washington (both parties I am taling about here) treats the working class/middle class American. Millions in bonuses (US tax dollars) to executives at companies who were so greedy they made business deals a kindergartner should have known were bad … ran their companies into the ground and then get paid a bonus anyway “becuase there was a contract in place”?
What about the “contract in place” with the millions of people who were told to move their savings to 401k’s … even enticed to by government .. and now they are nearing old age and they have nothing. Thank God I came into Civil Service under CSRS … they spent years trying to entice me to move to FERS. Sad for all my fellow Feds who took the self-serving government bait.
Social Security sent me a “Stimulus Payment” of $250 USD. Wow. Been working hard for weeks now analyzing all the ways I can spend that windfall. Yet if I had lost billions of other people\s money I would get multi-million bonuses?
It’s not, I stress, a Red vs Blue thing, it’s a”privileged class” versus the “massa” thing. Our poor, poor country.
Sign me, Proud to be Born in the USA, but it wasn’t THIS USA back then.
My friend just got home (Merchant Seaman) the other day, He said his Company’s 401K is now a 201K as half is gone. He had to put off retiring by 5 years.
I’m sorry to have to inform your friend but his math is off. The plan is officially now a 200.5K. He;ll be receiving a bill for the remaining 0.5 percent. *sigh*.
When you said ‘home’, Paul, did you mean home here in the Philippines or ???
One of my pet ‘pitches’ lately has been this is a great place for someone to wait out their ‘full’ retirement .. like to cover the years up to 65 or 66 or 67 when the full Social Security kicks in, etc.
Even folks who don’t want to live here for the est of their retirement could well consider using the Philippines as a ‘way station’. My bank accounts certainly indicate it is more than possible.
Dave;
200.5K, that’s a good one, he’s coming by bukas and I’ll tell him.
Yes, he lives here when not sailing, Wife, kids, Grandkids and owns a nice house. I lived here also for 6 years while still sailing, until 2001 when I called it quits.
My first SS check is next week!